Building an E-Commerce Web Site

(1)

Building an E-commerce Web Site

(2)

Learning Objectives

 Explain the process that should be followed in

building an e-commerce Web site

 Describe the major issues surrounding the decision

to outsource development and/or hosting

 Identify and understand the major considerations

involved in choosing server and e-commerce merchant server software

 Understand the issues involved in choosing the most

appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site

 Identify additional tools that can improve Web site

(3)

Right-Sizing a Web Site? Use a Simulator

 Web site simulators such as IBM’s High Volume Web Site (HVWS)

Simulator can help answer such questions as

 How many Web servers does your site require  How many CPUs should each server have

 How powerful does the site’s database server need to be  What kind of connection speed do you need to the Internet  The HVWS Simulator uses a queuing model that estimates the

performance and capacity of a Web site based on workload patters, performance objectives and specific hardware and software

(4)

Right-Sizing a Web Site? Use a Simulator

(5)

Building an E-commerce Site: A

Systematic Approach

 Two most important management challenges

in building a successful e-commerce site are:

 Developing a clear understanding of

business objectives

 Knowing how to choose the right

(6)

Pieces of the Site-Building Puzzle

 Main areas where you will need to make decisions in

building a site include:

 Human resources and organizational capabilities –

creating a team that has the skill set to build and manage a successful site

 Hardware  Software

 Telecommunications  Site design

(7)

Pieces of the E-commerce Site-Building

Puzzle

(8)

The Systems Development Life Cycle

 Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a

methodology for understanding the business

objectives of a system and designing an appropriate solution

 Five major steps in the SDLC are:  Systems analysis/planning

 Systems design

 Building the system  Testing

(9)

Web Site Systems Development

Life Cycle

(10)

System Analysis/Planning: Identifying

Business Objectives, System Functionality,

and Information Requirements

 Business objectives: a list of capabilities you

want your site to have

 System functionalities: a list of the types of information system capabilities you will need to achieve your business objectives

 Information requirements: the information

elements that the system must produce in order to achieve the business objectives

(11)

Systems Analysis: Business Objectives,

System Functionality, and Information

Requirements for a Typical E-commerce

Site

Table 4.1, Page 200

(12)

Systems Design: Hardware and

Software Platforms

 System design specification: a description of the main

components of a system and their relationship to one another.

 System design can be broken down into two parts:  Logical design includes:

 Dataflow diagram that describes the flow of information

at the site, processing functions that must be performed, and databases that will be used

 Description of the security and emergency backup

systems, and controls that will be used

 Physical design: translate the logical design into physical

(13)

A Logical Design for a Simple Web Site

(14)

A Physical Design for a Simple Web Site

(15)

Building the System: In-House

versus Outsourcing

 Outsourcing: hiring an outside vendor to provide services

involved in building the site

 The build your own versus outsourcing decision:

 Build your own requires team with diverse skill set; choice

of software tools; both risks and possible benefits

 Host your own versus outsourcing

 Hosting: hosting company is responsible for ensuring site is

accessible 24/7, for monthly fee

 Co-location: firm purchases or leases a Web server (with

control over its operation), but server is located in at vendor’s physical facility

(16)

Insight on Business: The Small

Entrepreneur’s Edge

 Audiophileusa.com: sells rare vinyl LPs

 Run by its owners (husband and wife team John and

Marianne Turton) out of their house, with inventory stored in basement

 Site originally designed in 1994; by 2002 had become a

“straggling mess”

 Turtons decided to outsource redesign of Web site  Bids ranged from $10,000 to $30,000

 New site features graphics, searchable database, and

(17)

Choices in Building and Hosting

Figure 4.4, Page 203

(18)

The Spectrum of Tools for Building

Your Own E-commerce Site

(19)

Costs of Customizing E-commerce

Packages

(20)

Key Players: Hosting/Co-location

Services

(21)

Testing, Implementation and Maintenance

 Testing:

 Includes unit testing, system testing and acceptance testing  Implementation and maintenance:

 Maintenance is ongoing, with 20% of time devoted to debugging

code and responding to emergency situations, 20% with changing reports, data files and links to backend databases; and 60% to general administration and making changes and enhancements to system

 Benchmarking: process by which site is compared to those of

(22)

Insight on Technology: Buying

Something You Can’t See

 Insurance illustrates a class of products that

are difficult to describe or compare, and therefore difficult to sell online

 InsWeb.com Web site demonstrates the

challenges of designing a Web site to fit the product being sold

(23)

Factors in Web Site Optimization

(24)

Components of a Web Site Budget

(25)

Simple versus Multi-tiered Web

Site Architecture

 System architecture: refers to the arrangement of software, machinery, and tasks in an information system needed to achieve a specific functionality

 Two-tier architecture: Web server responds to requests for Web pages and a database server provides

backend data storage

 Multi-tier architecture: Web server is linked to a middle-tier layer that typically includes a series of application servers that perform specific tasks, as well as to a

(26)

Two-Tier E-commerce Architecture

Figure 4.9(a), Page 212

(27)

Multi-tier E-commerce Architecture

Figure 4.9(b), Page 212

(28)

Web Server Software

 All e-commerce sites require basic Web

server software to answer HTTP requests from customers

 Apache the leading Web server software;

works only with UNIX operating systems

 Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS)

(29)

Key Players in Web Server Software

(30)

Basic Functionality Provided by

Web Servers

(31)

Site Management Tools

 All Web servers contain basic site

management tools that verify that links on pages are still valid and also identify orphan files

 Additional site management software and

services such as those provided by Webtrends can be purchased

(32)

WebTrends Software

Page 216

(33)

WebTrends Software

Page 216

(34)

WebTrends Software

Page 216

(35)

WebTrends Software

Page 216

(36)

Dynamic Page Generation Tools

 Dynamic page generation: contents of Web

page are stored as objects in a database rather than being hard-coded in HTML, and are fetched when needed from database

 Tools include CGI (Common Gateway

Interface), ASP (Active Server Pages), JSP (Java Server Pages), etc.

 Lowers menu costs, permits easy online

(37)

Application Servers

 Web application servers: software programs

that provide specific business functionality required of a Web site

 Are an example of middleware software

 A number of different types available,

(38)

Application Servers and Their Functions

(39)

E-commerce Merchant Server

Software Functionality

 Provides the basic functionality needed for

online sales, including:

 Online catalog

 Shopping cart

(40)

Merchant Server Software Packages

(E-commerce Suites)

 Offer integrated environment that provides functionality and

capabilities needed to develop sophisticated, customer-centric site

 Key factors to consider in choosing include:

 Functionality

 Support for different business models  Business process modeling tools

 Visual site management tools and reporting  Performance and scalability

 Connectivity to existing business systems  Compliance with standards

 Global and multicultural capability  Local sales tax and shipping rules

(41)

Widely Used Midrange and

High-end E-commerce Suites

Table 4.5, Page 220

(42)

Choosing the Hardware for an

E-commerce Site

 Hardware platform: refers to all the underlying

computing equipment that the system users to achieve e-commerce functionality

 Objective to have enough platform capacity to

meet peak demand but not so much that you are wasting money

 Important to understand the different factors

(43)

Right-Sizing Your Hardware

Platform: The Demand Side

 Demand that customers put on a site the most important factor affecting the speed of a site

 Factors involved in demand include:

 Number of simultaneous users in peak periods  Nature of customer requests (user profile)

 Type of content (dynamic versus static Web pages)  Required security

 Number of items in inventory  Number of page requests  Speed of legacy applications

(44)

Factors in Right-sizing an E-commerce

Platform

Table 4.6, Page 223

(45)

Degradation in Performance as

Number of Users Increases

(46)

Capacity of Static Page Web Servers

(47)

Visitor Profile at Typical E-commerce

Sites

(48)

The Impact of Dynamic Page

Content on Web Servers

(49)

The Relationship of Bandwidth to Hits

(50)

Right-Sizing Your Hardware

Platform: The Supply Side

 Scalability: refers to the ability of a site to increase in size as demand warrants

 Ways to scale hardware:

 Vertically: increase the processing power

of individual components

 Horizontally: employ multiple computers to

share the workload

(51)

Eight Vertical and Horizontal

Scaling Techniques

(52)

Vertically Scaling a System

(53)

Horizontally Scaling a System

(54)

Improving the Processing

Architecture of Your Site

Table 4.9, Page 230

(55)

Web Site Design: Basic

Business Considerations

 To achieve basic business functionality of a

Web site, need to be aware of design

guidelines and software tools that can build active content and functionality

 Poorly designed Web sites drive customers

(56)

Web Site Features that Annoy

Customers

(57)

The Eight Most Important Factors in

Successful E-commerce Site Design

(58)

Tools for Interactivity and Active Content

 CGI (Common Gateway Interface): Set of standards for communication

between a browser and a program running on a server that allows for interaction between the user and the server

 ASP (Active Server Pages): Enables programmers using Microsoft’s IIS

package to build dynamic pages

 Java: Allows programmers to create interactivity and active content on the

client computer

 JSP (Java Server Pages): Similar to CGI and ASP; allows developers to

use a combination of HTML, JSP scripts and Java to dynamically generate Web pages in response to user requests

 JavaScript: Programming language invented by Netscape that is used to

(59)

Tools for Interactivity and Active Content

(cont’d)

 ActiveX: Programming language invented by

Microsoft to compete with Java

 VBScript: Programming language invented by

Microsoft to compete with JavaScript

 ColdFusion: An integrated server-side

environment for developing interactive Web applications f

(60)

Personalization Tools

 Personalization: Ability to treat people based

on their personal qualities and prior history with your site

 Customization: Ability to change the product

to better fit the needs of the customer

 Cookies the primary method for achieving

(61)

The Information Policy Set

 Privacy policy: Set of public statements

declaring how site will treat customers’

personal information that is gathered by site

 Accessibility rules: Set of design objectives

that ensure disabled users can affectively access site

(62)

Insight on Society: Design Your

Web Site for Accessibility

 Section 508, Rehabilitation Act: Requires Web sites of

federally funded organizations to be accessible to users who are blind, deaf, blind and deaf, or unable to use a mouse

 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): recent Federal district

court decision ruled that ADA applies only to physical spaces, not virtual spaces such as Web

 Design strategies that can improve accessibility include:  Embedding text descriptions behind images

 Allowing users to set color and font schemes

 Adding screen magnification tools and sound labels

 Using features that enable page activation via a variety of

(63)

Case Study: REI: Multi-Channel

Champ Rebuilds Web Site

 REI.com: World’s largest online retailer of outdoor gear

 Original version of site (launched September 1996) built

in-house, with off-the-shelf software tools and Netscape’s Merchant Server software installed on an IBM RS/6000

 Upgraded to IBM’s Net.Commerce server in 1998, launched

2nd_{Web site (rei-outlet.com), and migrated rei.com to new}

system

 Third rebuild of Web site in 2002, standardizing on IBM’s

WebSphere

 2002—REI named one of best multi-channel companies in

(64)

REI: Multi-channel Champ Rebuilds Web Site

(65)